Mindfulness in Daily Life: Hands!

Hi all-- In these last few days before we meet again (Sunday October 17th, 6:30pm) consider shifting the focus of your attention from the feet to the hands...

Awareness of hands is a connecting practice-- our hands are often the interface between our internal and external world-- we reach for a door knob, shake someone's hand, open the fridge, hold a cup of tea, write a letter, pick up the phone, etc. It's an opportunity to connect physically with the rich textures of our lives.

This is a practice in which we can really be like children in a candy shop! So many textures, shapes, temperatures, etc. It also facilitates a little bit of "pause" in between all the "doing" of life -- we simply stop for a moment and experience directly the world around us. Enjoy!

Best,
Rebecca

Mindfulness in Daily Life #1

A "daily menu practice" is a good way to support bringing mindfulness practice off the cushion and into our daily lives. A menu practice just means bringing a particular focus of awareness to each day. Like the various strength, flexibility and balancing postures that we might practice in a yoga class to develop overall vitality and health in the body, the menu practice offers us a “cross-training” method for cultivating awareness in daily life. Over time you will notice that as the various skills develop, there is a growing sense of overall connection and appreciation for whatever is arising. This is really where the awareness we bring to formal meditation practice opens up and meets our lives in a wonderful way.

THIS WEEK: Mindfulness of FEET

This week’s “menu practice” is to bring attention to our feet at various moments throughout the day. The practice of focusing awareness on our feet is a grounding practice, one that brings us right to the "here" of the "here and now." It is incredibly helpful, especially when caught up or feeling lost. It is also a way to build awareness into the transitional elements of our life (when we are walking) or to the static elements (waiting in line). Whenever you remember, whether you’re watching television, driving a car, headed to the copy machine or stepping into the shower, bring attention to the actual sensations taking place in the feet.

May footsteps and grounding connections abound :-)
Jenn & Rebecca

Home Practice Guidlines #2

“With gentleness and precision, meditation practice will bring us joy.”
~Sakyong Mipham

SEATED PRACTICE

This week we ask you to really focus and steady your seated practice on the body. Learning to work with body sensations not only offers us a direct window into our basic moment to moment human experience, it is an invaluable skill as we negotiate the many difficult physical experiences that can show up on the cushion (or chair). Often when we begin to sit for longer periods of time, unpleasant sensations can arise in the shoulders, knees, hips, etc. Sometimes the discomfort is sharp, sometimes broad or pulsing, sometimes deep or numb. Our practice here is to notice with curiosity and kindness WHATEVER is arising. Moreover, learning to compassionately observe physical sensations serves us greatly when we encounter strong emotional states (which we will explore inweek 4 of the meditation series).

Please incorporate the following practices into your seated meditations:

BODY SCAN: Slowly scan the body (head, neck, shoulders, etc), staying alert to whatever sensations are present. Feel yourself as a physical body. If you are lost or not sure where to place your attention, direct your focus to the physical sensations of breath and then return to the body scan.

BODY EXPLORATION: Begin with your attention resting on the breath but notice whatever physical sensations arise in your field of awareness. Allow your attention to go to that area and explore. What are the basic elements (size, temperature, intensity, etc.) of the sensation? How does the sensation move, change, intensify or dissipate? How does the act of observation affect the sensation? When your attention wanes, gently return to the anchor of the breath.

STONG SENSATION: Explore strong physical sensations and/or the desire to move with kindness. We are looking to cultivate stillness but if you need to move, do so with interest and curiosity, paying attention to the changing sensations before, during and after.

For those of you who are new to meditation, we ask you to up your daily practice by 5 minutes a day (so if you’ve been sitting 10 minutes a day, now practice sitting 15 minutes a day). Notice what the extra 5 minutes feel like. Are you aware of the extra time? Does it make you more anxious or more relaxed? Does it allow you to go deeper in or do you notice more resistance arising? Remember, whatever you notice is an integral part of the practice, not an obstacle to the practice.

Carving out 15 minutes of stillness can seem daunting in a busy life, but what most people find is
that the stillness actually creates time in the day by generating a greater sense of spaciousness and perspective.

For those of you with an established practice, continue to augment your practice in a specific way—a longer sit, sitting more frequently during the week or adding an additional short sit during the day.

Weekly Support Notes / October 1, 2010

"Look at the tree in the front yard. The tree doesn’t seem to be doing anything. It stands there, vigorous, fresh, and beautiful, and everyone profits from it. That’s the miracle of being. If a tree were less than a tree, all of us would be in trouble. But if a tree is just a real tree, then there’s hope and joy. That’s why if you can be yourself, that is already action. Action is based on non-action; action is being."

Practice it is! 10 minutes today, 10 minutes tomorrow, 10 minutes the next day, and so on and so on and so on...

Join us again this Sunday October 3 as we narrow our focus and explore the landscape of the body in walking and sitting meditation. Gaining insight thru experiential means as we discover more about what it is to be us.

Jenn & Rebecca

Weekly Support Notes / September 23, 2010

How are your minutes (10 or so) on the cushion shaping up?
In this weekly support letter we offer you a bit of inspiration/wisdom as well as some questions to reflect on and an opportunity to draw your awareness from the cushion into every moment of your waking life! Consider keeping a journal to track your experiences and if you like share your challenges and insights with us all right here!

While our intentions are important, this quote from Larry Rosenberg cautions us about goals...

"It is important to emphasize, in discussing the art of meditation
(and the practice as you continue becomes an art, with many subtle nuances), that you shouldn't start out with some idea of gaining. This is the deepest paradox in all of meditation: we want to get somewhere -- we wouldn't have taken up the practice if we didn't - but the way to get there is just to be fully here. The way to get from point A to point B is really to be at A. When we (meditate) in the hope of becoming something better, we are compromising our connection to the present, which is all we ever have."

So, in this practice, we are asked to hold an apparent contradiction -
the willful effort of showing up with our best intention and the letting go of all expectation...but this week just for about 10 minutes!!!

REFLECTION
We ask the question "Why Bother?" Pause for a moment to reflect on this...in your journal or on the blog

• What about meditation is of interest to you?
• What motivates you to engage in this practice?
• What is your intention?
• What will bring you back to your cushion or chair even when your resistance is high?

PRACTICE IN DAILY LIFE
Pause for some moments in your day, notice the sounds that abound, the breath moving in and out, the thoughts racing and stumbling, the sensation of your smile. Take the time in a few of the "in between" places in your life, stopped at a red light, in line at the market, on hold on the phone, tune in to the moment, look at what is really happening...don't think, just see.

Post or comment or email with any questions, concerns, challenges etc and we will do our best to support you.

Jenn & Rebecca

Fall Meditation Series To Begin Sunday!!

Join Rebecca Foster and Jenn Thomas for
A Practical Exploration of Mindfulness Meditation Practices

Through simple structure and guidance we join together to uncover
some of the mysteries of mindfulness meditation.
Come to one or all sessions, deepen your practice or try it out for the first time...

Sundays 630-800pm Eyes of the World Yoga
September 19, October 3 & 17, November 7 & 21, December 5

We look forward to sitting with you

Meditation Minder Week 6

Hello Hello fellow persons in pursuit of OOPS! I mean in the moment...

As we come to our final week exploring the practical application of techniques in mindfulness meditation we wish to share this oh so wonderful attitude of mind, from Jon Kabat-Zin - NON STRIVING ! The whole passage is perfect just as it is and embodies so much of what we have been exploring these past months.

Take the time to sit for 30 minutes ( or an amount of time that is appropriate for the growth of your practice) before we meet tomorrow. Ask yourself, " what is happening right now", explore that happening watch it shift, change and morph into something different, float along the river of your experience, live the ebb and flow.

Almost everything we do we do for a purpose, to get something or somewhere. But in meditation this attitude can be a real obstacle. That is because meditation is different from all other human activities. Although it takes a lot of work and energy of a certain kind, ultimately meditation is a non-doing. It has no goal other than for you to be yourself. The irony is that you already are. This sounds paradoxical and a little crazy. Yet this paradox and craziness may be pointing you toward a new way of seeing yourself, one in which you are trying less and being more. This comes from intentionally cultivating the attitude of non-striving.

For example, if you sit down to meditate and you think, "I am going to get relaxed, or get enlightened, or control my pain, or become a better person," then you have introduced an idea into your mind of where you should be, and along with it comes the notion that you are not okay right now. "If I were only more calm, or more intelligent, or a harder worker, or more this or more that, if only my heart were healthier or my knee were better, then I would be okay. But right now, I am not okay."

This attitude undermines the cultivation of mindfulness, which involves simply paying attention to whatever is happening. If you are tense, then just pay attention to the tension. If you are in pain, then be with the pain as best you can. If you are criticizing yourself, then observe the activity of the judging mind. Just watch. Remember, we are simply allowing anything and everything that we experience from moment to moment to be here, because it already is.

In the meditative domain, the best way to achieve your own goals is to back off from striving for results and instead to start focusing carefully on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment by moment. With patience and regular practice, movement toward your goals will take place by itself. This movement becomes an unfolding that you are inviting to happen within you.


Please join us tomorrow SUNDAY APRIL 18, 2010 at 630pm for a special meditation practice! If you've never been let this be your beginning, if you joined us once or twice or five times let yourself continue, we look forward to seeing you all!

Much Metta
Jenn & Rebecca